February Already?

February is off to a good start here in Indiana. Get ready to see some pictures.
A. is pretty excited about being a 'Big Boy.' Even though he sits in a booster at the table with us, he occasionally likes to climb into his old high chair to eat. He learned to pull the tray off and you've gotta be a 'Big Boy' to do something like that!

Time to shave already?

Daddy was shaving, why shouldn't Andrew? (cover on the blade)

I put A. down for his nap the other day. It was a day that he decided to just read and play in his crib instead of actually sleeping. I heard him saying all sorts of things. He was calling out to me saying 'Mommy! I can climb out of my crib because I'm a big boy. I can climb out Mommy, come into my room!' I then heard his feet moving around on the crib mattress. I texted Nate to tell him about it and pointed out that he must not be able to actually climb out because he was still in the crib.

I guess he wasn't kidding!

He was climbing out enough so that he was standing on the mattress from the outside before climbing back in. Even though he can climb out and he knows it, he never has. He is pretty dog-gone good at respecting authority in situations like this. He just waits in there until we come get him. Can all our kids be like this?! The other night he woke up a couple hours early and bonked his head on the crib. When I went in there to comfort him he asked if the sun had come up yet (meaning is it time to wake up and play). I told him it was still night time and offered to sing him a couple songs. He suggested a couple, helped me sing them, and then snuggled back into bed with his blankies to sleep some more. Love my little boy!
The other day we tried taking our 4+ loads of laundry to a laudromat instead of using the little complex one that we have here. It was a disaster! It ended up costing more and it took way too long resulting in a late bedtime, late dinner, 4+ loads of still wet clothes, and a scramble to blow dry special blankies in time for bed. We had clothes hanging around every surface of the apartment for days trying to get them to all dry out, I spent so much time trying to get them hung up and situated just right so they could dry. I should have just taken them to the complex dryers, but I'd already made the blunder that made it more expensive and I couldn't bring myself to pay more. On the plus side we were able to create a new game or two because of those hanging blankets. We made a crib fort and both boys were able to join in on the fun:

Check out E's face in this one:

A. did not step on E's head, it just looks like he's going to.
Train launching anyone?

Pajama day! A. loves staying in his jammies all day long if we'll let him. He also isn't as eager to leave the house to go on adventures, he'd just assume stay home and play. On days when we do stay home though it's a lot harder to regulate electronics. I let A. watch a short movie about 3-4 times a week (usually about 1/2 hour), we let him play computer games for a little while most days- his favorite is Curious George's Busy Day on pbskids.org and we let him watch Mormon Messages on average 5 days a week, it's where he learned the words to "I Am a Child of God" and since then he's really picked up on tons of primary songs. And then there is skyping with family... but he asks several times a day to watch this or this or this or play that, what kid doesn't like doing those things? It's fewer times of having to say 'not right now' when we do get out of the house! He is pretty good at playing these days though. He loves pretending all sorts of things like climbing mountains, or jumping in puddles, or cooking/eating. His current favorite toy is the train set he got for Christmas. And, he still loves reading stories with us. I've found that I have to hold it and ask if he wants to read a story though if it's not our conventional reading times or he won't want to read.

Brotherly lovin'

E. put his arm 'around' A. and A. thought it was absolutely hilarious

Gotta love the warm weather we've had this week. Nate came home early a couple of the days and we took the boys to the park. A. absolutely loved it. He's much braver than he was a few months ago. He goes down all of the slides and doesn't run away from other kids who are thinking of following him down the slide or up a set of stairs.



E. is looking pretty big these days (I weighed him the other day and he's already 13 pounds), and pretty grown-up too...

All this playing tuckers us out in time for bed!

Happy February

When Grandma Comes to Visit

We were so excited to have my mom come visit for a week and a half in January. It was nice to have a fun visitor this time of year when we're stuck inside most days (although this year has been surprisingly warm!). My mom was a huge help- we were able to get lots of things done. She gave Nate and I the opportunity to go on a few dates, which I am SO grateful for. We all got to play some games and have fun just visiting.

One of the perks of being a grandma is spoiling the grandkids they say. A. sure didn't mind getting a treat or two like some fruit snacks! It's amazing how exciting something small like fruit snacks can be to a two year old.

She had to go home before baby E. was born (10 days past my due date) so she could be home in time for my younger brother to return home from his mission (He served a 2 year mission for our church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in North Carolina) so it was lots of fun to introduce her to her newest grandson.

We got some baby footprints and handprints- kinda tricky!

A. loved playing with his grandma. She had lots of fun ideas, like eating number soup:

Just look how happy he is to be playing with Grandma!

We were able to have some pictures of all 4 of us together (pretty rare...)

Thanks Dad for sending Mom and thanks for coming Mom/Grandma, we miss you!

Alive and Well

Life here is good. We're healthy. We're together. We have been blessed with SO much. I get to spend my days with these little guys:



(he only sleeps on his tummy during naps when I can watch him)


We're getting excited for Valentine's Day. (the thing on the wall started out saying i 'heart' you, but it was too much fun to play with) Here's A's "smile" these days.

And, I get to watch these two play together.

Yep, life is very very good.

Tricky moves

The other day when I went in to get A. from his nap/quiet time I found him like this:
He looked over at me and said 'Hey Mom! Look at this.' He was pretty proud of himself. Then he heard Nate say sometime out in the other room (he didn't know Nate had come home) and A. added 'This is tricky Da-da!" He's been practicing his latest move. He's never climbed out of his crib, I don't think that the possibility has even crossed his mind. He loves his crib, why try to escape it? In fact, he usually wants to hang out in there while we read him stories after he wakes up and we come in to get him. He's stayed in there for as long as 45 minutes after we went in there. We're in no hurry to rock the boat and put him in a toddler bed.

He calls this the monkey bars:

(his legs are off the ground)
Check out this mound on the measuring spoon:

And how bout this face:

And he just makes me happy:

Two legs... two boys!

One Month Old

E. is now 1 month old. We love our little man. He's generally a happy baby. Most nights he only wakes up to eat during the night and then quickly falls back asleep. He has started smiling. He loves having his diaper changed, and is most likely to give us his smiles when we're changing it.

Doesn't coo a ton, but A. gets really excited every time E. "talks." E. seems to have "no nap days" and "nap days"- some days he basically doesn't nap at all- just quick cat naps and other days he sleeps for hours and hours.
This is his signature face:

Do you think they look like brothers? I do.

More Christmas Break 2011

It snowed! (technically the 2nd snow of the year, but the first one we were driving through to pick up my mom from the airport and it didn't last).
Check out this handsome little marshmallow man:

We made a little snowman together.

And more importantly, we threw snowballs! He LOVED throwing snowballs and the slushy snow was perfect for him to turn into little balls. He would have stayed out there all day if he could have, too bad it was so dog-on cold!



He's getting so big :)

We found little E. sleeping like this:

That's how you sleep too, right? Conducting in his sleep.
Extra Daddy-time means some fun games! A's train ride went from:

To:

To:

Good times.

E. got his first non-hospital bath. He was a champ.

We took a trip down to Indy so we thought we'd stop by the free art museum, gotta love free! A's favorite thing to see/do were the escalators, sometimes we're a little more cultured than others :)